Berto Martinez

          Dr. Roberto Martinez. IQ of 185, doctorates in Microbiology and Mechanical Engineering, quite possibly the most brilliant mind to grace N-Tek's technical staff since... well, since ever. He's a certified genius, with a surprisingly broad knowledge of a number of scientific disciplines outside his specific fields. Robotics, electronics, chemistry-- he's a regular scientific jack of all trades. In fact, the MX project, the nanotechnology later known as the Max Probes, was his baby.
          He's also nineteen years old, the oldest of five children, and is almost completely unable to relate to others his own age. His father died when he was young, leaving him the "man of the house." Most of his childhood was spent either taking care of his younger siblings, or studying. He graduated from high school at sixteen, already in possession of enough college credits to allow him to skip over his freshman year. It only took him another year to blow through his undergrad degree, since he took twice the normal number of credits each semester, and he worked through the summers. One more year of pure research, and he had his doctorates. As you can imagine, at no time during these two years did he get out of the lab much.
          Berto was recruited by N-Tek immediately after receiving his doctorates. (And I do mean immediately-- they approached him with the offer as he was heading to the bus stop.) They made him an offer he couldn't refuse-- a huge lab, a chance to play with whatever he wanted, and next to no chance that he would ever, ever have to go into the field or interact with any agents outside the tech staff. To a self-proclaimed lab rat like Berto, it seemed like the next best thing to heaven.
          "But why are you telling us all this, Maggie?" I hear my non-existent readers exclaim. (Yeah, a psychiatrist hearing voices. You wanna make something out of it?) Hey, these are MY notes, and this stuff goes a long way to explaining Berto and his hang-ups.
          Like I said, Berto's interaction with real people outside his immediate family was almost nil for most of his entire life. Mentally, he functions on a level surpassing most adults-- emotionally, he's still feeling his way through adolescence. Teaming him with Max has been surprisingly good for him, though I have a suspicion Smith did it in part to boost Berto's paycheck, since most of it gets sent home to his family.
          Over the past year, the change in Berto has been remarkable. His confidence has skyrocketed, to the point where he's taken the lowest level of field qualifications-- and PASSED. I think Max has, to some extent, become someone to take care of in place of the siblings he left at home. Certainly the two of them regard each other almost as brothers. Berto still feels more comfortable with technology than people, but Max, and to a lesser extent, the other members of Team Steel seem to be the exceptions to the rule.